Scan 15
The New Encyclopedia Of Music And Musicians, 1929
42 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1accents may not coincide in the several parts, but the grammatical accents fall strictly together.
3The essential character of an accent varies. On a percussive instrument, like the piano, the characteristic stress is hammer-like or initial (strong at the outset). On the organ the more characteristic stress is thorough or sustained. But with the voice and many solo-instruments the stress may be also median, swelled or pressing (if strong in the middle) or terminal or explosive (if strong at the end). In all performance the management of the type of accent, as well as the placing of it, constitutes one of the subtlest devices of artistic effect.
5The name accent is also used for certain harpsichord-effects; see Embellishments.
7Accentus. In Gregorian music, a melodic figure or inflection at the end of a phrase in a monotoned text. G.
9The chief varieties are the immutable (simply extending the monotone), the medial (falling a minor third), the grave (falling a fifth), the acute (falling a third on the penult and returning), the moderate (rising a tone on the penult and returning), the interrogative (falling on the penult and antepenult and returning) and the final (falling tone by tone through a fourth). A particular inflection is also more or less regularly used in the midst of phrases in reciting certain texts.
11The term is also used collectively for those parts of the service that are recited by the priest; opposed to concentus (by the choir).
13Accessory. Of a tone or note, same as auxiliary (q. v.). In organ-making, a mechanical part of the action, like a coupler, the tremulant, etc., controlled by a knob or lever as are the speaking-stops; an accessory stop. All such mechanisms are often called the accessories.
15Acciaccatura. See Embellishments. G.
17Accidental. See Notation. G.
19Accompaniment. In general, a subsidiary or supporting part in a composition, proceeding at the same time with whatever is principal. If necessary to the intended effect, it is called obbligato, but if it may be omitted, ad libitum. The term is most used for the instrumental basis or background for a vocal or instrumental solo, or for a chorus, especially when set for a keyboard-instrument (like the piano or the organ) or for an instrumental ensemble (like an orchestra). But it may be extended to other combinations, as in a lyric piano-piece to whatever supports the chief melody or in a part-song to all others than the chief voice-part. So in a quartet-concerto the orchestra may be spoken of as accompanying the quartet. G.
21The technical problems of accompaniment first became urgent about 1800, especially because then the organ began to be used with ecclesiastical song in something more than note-for-note duplication, because an effective tonal substructure was becoming imperative for the developing recitative and arioso in the infant opera and oratorio, and because purely instrumental forms with a predominating melody were beginning to be devised.
23For a long time after 1600 accompaniments were habitually indicated by means of a bass-part and a system of numerals for the intended harmony, the actual treatment being left to the player's skill and ingenuity; see Basso Continuo or Thoroughbass. This skeleton system continued in use far into the 18th century, even after composers had begun to draft accompaniments in full.
25With the profuse expansion of the opera in the later 17th and the 18th centuries many conventional types of accompaniment became common, such as rhythmically repeated chords, broken chords, arpeggios, etc.
27Arias were customarily divided into phrases that were separated by ritornelli, as well as prefaced by instrumental preludes and followed by codas. Recitatives were divided into those with a slight chordal support (secco) or with a developed accompaniment (stromentato). Though composers like Handel often gave their arias strong individuality by varied and telling accompaniments, it was not till late in the 18th century, when dramatic music escaped from its traditional routine and when the best ingenuity began to experiment with the small, but intense form of the song and the ballad, that accompaniments began to exhibit their full artistic possibilities. In this advance many factors co-operated, including the signal improvements in writing for the piano and for the orchestra. Every leading composer contributed something to accompaniment-literature. In the Wagnerian theory of the opera, finally, the accompaniment became supreme, since in it and through it is established the pervasive atmosphere of sentiment in which the entire lyric expression and action take place.
29Additional accompaniments are those added to an existing work by another than the composer. Such accompaniments are necessary or desirable in the case of older works in which the instrumental parts are not fully written out (especially when indicated only by a basso continuo) or where the original scoring is not well adapted to modern usage or conditions. The method must vary greatly according to circumstances. Famous examples are Mozart's rescoring of Handel's Messiah and other works, Franz's versions of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Magnificat and several cantatas, etc.
31Accordatura. In stringed instruments of the lute- and viol-classes, the regular or usual series of pitches to which the strings are tuned; opposed to scordatura.
33Accordeur. A set of tuning-forks giving the tones of the tempered scale, used as an aid to tuning.
35Accordion. A portable free-reed instrument, invented in 1829 by Damian of Vienna. The reeds are mounted in two wooden blocks, with small finger-keys or studs for each hand, and between the blocks is a collapsible bellows, worked by the player's arms. By varying the pressure the intensity of the tone may be graduated. Each key controls two reeds, one sounded by compression, the other by suction. The small varieties are mere toys, but the large ones have considerable value. Compare the concertina and the mouth-harmonica. G.
37Acoustics. That branch of the science of physics which deals with the phenomena of sound. The occasion of the sensation of hearing is ordinarily the impact on the ear of vibrations that are conveyed to it by the air. The ear reports these to the mind in terms of noise and tone just as the eye reports other vibrations in terms of light and color. The distinction between noise and tone is not absolute, but in general tone is sound whose vibrations are periodic and somewhat sustained, while noise arises from irregular, confused or spasmodic vibrations. G.
39The vibrations of strings (the vocal cords or the strings of a violin or piano) are swinging or pendular motions. Those of the air are successive condensations and rarefactions. Within the ear both forms of vibration occur, the first in the ear-drum and its chain of bones, the second in the liquid of the labyrinth in which the terminals of the auditory nerve are immersed. The sensation of tone occurs only when the rate of vibration is more than 30-35 per second.
41In analyzing a given vibration a distinction is made
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